Origami Heart
by Loopholes47
Summary: Inspired by Kiame Laufey's "Cherry Wine". "You look like you're twelve!" "I'm seventeen!" Hisoka was a total creep, but she figured that out after she decided to talk to him. Sadly. [Hisoka x OC]
1. Chapter 1

It honestly was nerve wracking. But at the same time, exciting. Super duper exciting. Nonetheless, I kept my head down and made for the far corner of the underground exam meeting site. Of course, I knew that there were plenty of people walking around; I could sense them, even with my head down. But I did not expect that there would be another person who knew how to use their nen.

I was born with the ability to sense people and nen. In fact, my family was, too. Was. And only the people lurking behind the hidden doors (examiners, maybe?), the person who attracted my attention, and I had the telltale signs of ten burning like a fire inside of us. So I walked slowly to the person with a very noticeable nen. It was easy to just close my eyes and read his signature. But then I would probably look rather weird, so I pulled my hood of the bulky jacket over my head in an attempt to hide my eyes.

He was strong. Very strong. I was afraid to delve any deeper, so I let go of my concentration and opened my eyes. He looked a little over six feet, about a foot taller than I was. Well, that probably wasn't saying much, since I was kinda short. His hair was a vibrant color of some kind of red and gelled back. His joker outfit was somewhat... different, but other people had on even weirder clothes. On his chest, I could make out the number 44. I was 63. Well, he had arrived earlier than I had. Time could tell apart the strong and weak. Or the OCD and lazy. Before I could stop myself, my feet moved toward him and I had a strange idea to have a little meet and greet.

Just as he noticed me, my brain farted and immediately berated itself. What was I supposed to say? 'Greetings, only other nen user in this room so far.'

"Hello. What's your name?" Okay, that wasn't so bad.

The scarily strong man tilted his head down to have a good look at who was suddenly spiking a conversation with him. "Now, that's certainly strange. What is a young little girl doing at a Hunter Exam?"

I was slightly annoyed by the fact that he thought I was a little girl, since I was definitely not that babyish looking. But his cold and calculating voice was over the top, so I complied with something polite to escape the deadly grasp of his words. "Your hatsu seemed to be loosening as more and more 'inexperienced newbies' were entering. So I decided to see if the only other nen user was having fun."

Suddenly, his whole demeanor shifted into something that was entertained. His eyebrows shot up and so did a sharp, thin smile as well as completely slitted golden eyes. There was now an underlying tone of raging bloodlust in his nen that been buried deep, but now threatening to surge to the surface. Without a skip in beat, his bloodlust had calmed down like it had never rose. He chuckled softly. "You know of nen, then? Perhaps you even know how to use it. Oh, fun, fun, I just love to see potential in people like you!"

Umm... This guy was interesting. Kinda creepy, but I knew that I could be a total freak sometimes. "My name is Kisa."

"Oh, how rude of me not to introduce myself. I am Hisoka." With another odd grin, he took a bow like a magician would do at the end of his show. Another whimsical thought, was Hisoka a magician? I really could care less, but my brain capacity was mostly filled with imagination. And that would explain his attire.

And then I came to the realization that I must had been called a little girl because my hood was still up. With a casual flick of my hand, I took down my hood and carried on. If Hisoka noted my actual age, he did it very discreetly, as I did not see any change in expression. Or maybe he was secretly really old and called everyone young. Nah, he had to be in his twenties or thirties. His nen was burning much more "youthful" than anyone over forty.

The following conversation was filled with awkwardness. Because there was no conversation. He just smirked smugly, like he had unraveled a new piece of information, and disappeared. His speed was impressive, I had to admit. For the next two hours or so, I flitted past random people, observing each and every newcomer. Number 99 was certainly interesting, riding in on a skateboard and looking nonchalant in a test that was known for its death toll of approximately 99%. And he swallowed down the laxative dipped juice that I went great lengths to avoid, since I sensed something unpleasant in the offering man, Tonpa. Number 294 crept in silently, like a ninja, so almost nobody noticed his stealth work.

Number 301 had a zombie-like quality to him. But he, too, could use nen. The pins that were pinned to his face had very strong amounts of nen in them, so I wondered if the pins were a disguise to remodel his face temporarily. There were those overly superstitious people in the world, after all. I noticed how the zombie person wandered immediately towards Hisoka. Ah, so the nen users unite. As stealthily as I could in such a people filled space, I made it right in front of the two. "Hello."

Hisoka stopped midsentence to stare at me. Number 301 pivoted slightly, and I could hear clanks as he moved. Or, well, I assumed it was a he. "See?" The amber eyed joker had a light and amused tone. They had been discussing about me? Well, I felt somewhat honored to be in such a powerful person's talk. "She is tantalizingly ripe and ready for picking."

Nevermind, I felt flustered by the way he had worded it. My cheeks were probably burning a bright red, but I thanked him, undaunted. "I am to assume that that was a compliment and say thank you."

Number 301 said, "her shields are very strong. May I do the deed?"

Hisoka frowned. "Gittarakur, I will not steal your pray and you will not steal mine. She is mine."

While that did sound pretty romantic-ish (in a yandere way), the fact that I was very certain that he had just opted not to add the last two words, "to kill", which effectively made the whole thing way more creepier and more confusing than ought to be. Maybe I really should have kept away from Hisoka. Sad thing that my sensing could only help me with guiding my future and reveal what some opponents _might_ do. Being blatant and brutally honest I preferred over sugar coating everything. Damn fate. With a slight yelp when I felt Hisoka's breath on my neck, I strengthened every single shield and increased my sensing awareness, because I should not have been caught off guard like that. In a flash, my back was against the cold, metallic walls and facing the two creeps. My speed was another thing I prided in.

Ah, fate was probably the one who led me to this situation.


	2. Chapter 2

Even though Hisoka was a bit... of an oddball, let's just say, his powers were quite pretty. One guy bumped into him without apologizing, and I closed my eyes to see his waiting nen. When it became obvious that the rude man was just going to ignore him, Hisoka turned his arms and legs into flower petals. Cherry blossom petals, to be exact. A few people gasped and shrieked, but I thought that it was fair. Poke at a wild animal, you get your limbs eaten off on the spot. That would teach some to always be polite.

The next second, he came back to me with a smile I couldn't read. Happiness? Smugness? Completely Psycho? Of course, that irritated me greatly, but I didn't show it, not wanting my arms to get all flowery. "Can you tell what happened there~?"

I rose an eyebrow. Was he testing me? Making sure that I was good enough to be able to use nen? "Using nen, transmutation, I'm going to say, you cut off his limbs cleanly, but to make the flowers petals out of nowhere, and disappear, that was conjuring."

"Hmm~. Oh yes, you have passed."

Okay. I would get to live to (probably) see tomorrow. Well, that all depended on the Exam. really. A long, willowy figure with formal wear and a french mustache that most likely hid his mouth (there was the possibility that he didn't have a mouth, and everything was recorded) and light purple hair stepped out of nowhere. The examiner? He definitely helped with the "people here are very strange" cause.

"I am your examiner for the first part of the Hunter Exam. Follow me." He began to prance with very large steps and robotic sweeps of his arms. I squirmed my way up front to walk at his pace and examine how on earth he was moving - it seemed that he had very long legs that had to be strong to support his quickly moving character. "Do try to keep up."

After a minute of just walking, he turned his head and said, "Now, I'm going to speed up a little. Do try to keep up." His legs stretched out even more and his prancing picked up until the wannabe-hunters were in a full-out run. For some reason, I veered a little to the left to run with Hisoka and Gittarakur. _Go! Go! Power Hunters!_ I thought that they were flat out weird, but hey! I wasn't one to judge! Gittarakur just kept running, but Hisoka smirked and asked a question. "Oh, why do you keep on following us?"

I shrugged. "I'm bored. And besides, you are rather interesting."

He donned a curious expression. "Do tell."

"Your nen is..." How would I put it without sounding like a pervert? "It's very savory and spicy. Most would turn their heads at the flavor, but I think it's pretty nice. Like black licorice."

I loved black licorice.

"You can sense my nen?" There was a strange glint in his eyes.

"Yes," I paused. "I can see and taste and smell anybody's nen. That's about it."

He now had a satisfactory smile. But another disturbing response flew out of his mouth. "You've piqued my interest. Gittarakur, if you touch her, I will kill you."

The zombie-like man nodded without turning his head.

"Right, right, how do you sense nen?" He scooted a few inches to my left, suddenly talkative.

"If I close my eyes and concentrate, I can see the nen flowing through the tenketsu that make up the shape of the human body, awoken or not. So, if I felt like it, I could wander around a crowded city and manage not to bump into anybody with my eyes closed. I think it's a genetic thing, so I can't explain that much." I swallowed, trying not to remember my family. "That's how I see. And smelling is easy. You just sniff away."

All of a sudden, he looked very pleased to say, "and how do you taste them?"

I stuttered and tried not to blush. The tasting was my strongest suite, much to my disgust and embarrassment. "Usually, I have to open my mouth a fraction to let all the samples into my mouth using air waves, but an even better way that takes less time and is more precise is if I actually lick the person."

Sadly.

He asked questions like that occasionally, usually once an hour or so. A lot of people had dropped out - they didn't have the stamina to run for hours on end. I looked at my watch and noticed that four hours had passed. There were stairs in sight and a little light at the top of it all. When we could finally see our destination, people looked less tense and anybody could see the "we've made it!" running through their heads. This test was all about stamina/endurance. Mental and physical. Mental, because you were following a strange man for who knows how long, and physical, because we were basically running a mini-marathon. The stairs were boring. They were the exact same color every single step. Where I lived, I had painted the stairs like a starry night with shadows and contouring, so it seemed that you were going down, not up. I thought that I was a fun person.

Two boys, both about twelve (but my height!) were the first to exit the tunnel. They looked cheery, especially considering the dim attitude way back when. One was Number 99, and the other was Number 405. I remembered that he was the one who could taste the laxative in Tonpa's juice. With senses like that, he was sort of like me! I caught up with them, thinking that they were really cute, with big eyes and fluffy hair.

"Hello," I said.

"Hi." "Hi."

"My name is Gon! And this is Killua!" Gon was certainly energetic, considering that he had ran for four hours just a moment ago.

"I'm Kisa. Nice to meet you. Oh, I had noticed that you could taste the laxative in Tonpa-san's juice. You must have a good sense of taste to pull that off."

Gon's eyes widened. "Wait, that was laxative? Why had Tonpa-san accidentally put poison in the drinks?"

I had to resist from face-palming. Killua, the boy with silver hair and sapphire eyes, rolled his eyes at his green companion.

I shrugged apathetically. "Well, I'm pretty sure your friend over there can explain. See you."

I didn't like explaining things that much. Especially impromptu. Telling it to Hisoka was different, since I knew how my powers worked by heart. Why people had evil morals... that, on the other hand, was a completely other matter. I wasn't that into philosophy. It was just something that people did, for their own benefits or not. Besides, Killua looked smart. He probably could explain it to Gon.

Ragged people emerged out of the opening and into the mist. About two or three hundred made it out onto the platform. The door closed just as a guy shouted, "No! Wait for me!" And then it closed with finality. The whoosh of it cleared some of fog away, and the examiner, whose name I learned was Satotsu, said, "Welcome to the Numere Wetlands."


	3. Chapter 3

The Numere Wetlands was a very dangerous environment. All types of monsters and beasts awaiting to trick their prey into following them. What happened next was that the monster would feel very full while the person's family would have to prepare a funeral.

A tired looking man who looked somewhat beat down appeared from behind the entrance. He claimed that he was the actual examiner, and showed a similar, but dead, replica of Satotsu. I was falling for it, accept... "Their limbs are thin and long and weak-"

"How can someone who ran for four hours straight have weak limbs?" I had to ask.

That was when playing cards were sent flying at both of the examiners. Satotsu caught the cards with his hands, while the scraggly one with the dead monkey had his head slit open. "I see." Hisoka said. "Our examiners are hunters. Any Hunter could've caught those cards. So you are, indeed, the real one."

A few people in the crowd murmured. Satotsu nodded. "There will be all sorts of trickery in the swamp. And please do not attack me again, or I will have to disqualify you. Now then, please follow me." He went right back to prancing and the crowd quickly went after him.

I caught up to the examiner, and I knew that he was the right one, and not some kind of wild beast, because he had the same nen as the one who led us to here. "Ne, Satotsu-san, what kind of Hunter are you?" I imagined him being a Gourmet Hunter, since those white chef hats would go well with his mustache. Or a Marine Hunter, with a pirate hat that had a fancy feather sticking out. Maybe even an Archeologist/Ruins Hunter with an Indiana Jones hat.

He made a curious noise to see who was running beside him. "I am an Archeologist Hunter. Why do you wish to know?"

"You'd look really good in a hat," I stated bluntly. "I think -"

A few people behind us screamed. I frowned and trailed somewhat behind him to concentrate a little better as to what was going on. Ten people suddenly flickered away, more counting. More than half of the contestants were lost, either being led away by false trails, or lost in the thick fog. It took about an hour for all of us who passed to cross the finish line. Hisoka, undoubtly the strongest, wasn't the first to arrive, suprisingly enough. Bloodlust was creeping from the depths of his nen, so I tried to avoid him. Unlucky for me, he wandered off to my position in the much smaller crowd.

"Look, my cute little sensor made it in time," he licked his lips, eyeing Killua and Gin. "As well as others."

Was he a pedophile? Or just a creep? Could he be both? I shivered and tucked my arms against my chest. I was weather sensitive, and the Wetlands had been really cold. Or I was freaked out. Likely the latter. Bad idea to wear a short summer dress and thin knee-length socks, I thought. Luckily I had on a warm coat and was wearing another layer of clothing underneath the short summer dress. Wasn't it like nearing the end of spring?

"What a wonderful expression~! Make that timid face," Hisoka was behind me again and stroked my cheek. I tensed up and spun around. His finger stayed in the same position, so a few strands of hair whipped against it. They fell to the ground. His nails were that sharp?!

Finally, Satotsu checked his watch one last time, and announced the first phase to be over. Whew. The gates opened and we followed, yet again, the man to two new people. A woman with blueish green hair stuck in five tight knots with revealing clothing, as well as a large man with somewhat plain features.

"Hello! I am Menchi!"

"And I'm Buhara!" Buhara's stomach rumbled loudly. Menchi smirked.

"It looks like he's hungry! You got it, the second exam is cooking a dish that satisfies us both!"

A loud protest fell over. My eyes twitched with every insult. An annoying and disrespectful man with blond hair tied back in a wolf tail was the last straw.

"Menchi-sama! Buhara-sama! Permission to kill the people who won't respect the fine culinary arts!" I wanted to be a Gourmet Hunter. That was my goal. Cooking and eating nicely prepared food was something I lived for. It sounded kind of lame, but that was the truth. And Gourmet Hunters risked their lives just to appease customers.

"Killing will disqualify you, you know," added in Buhara cheerfully.

"Maim?"

I felt Hisoka's hand rest stop my head. I immediately silenced and froze - his hand was surprisingly warm. Recent nen activity.

Menchi stopped throttling one guy and sighed. "At least one of you appreciates us."

Once everyone quieted down, Buhara chose the one required ingredient: pork. But when we all tried hunting, Hisoka's hand still on my head, the pigs were ginormous. The Great Stamp. That was just too easy. Those pigs had a weak spot that pretty much killed it in one go. Their forehead. I had hunted them before, and other similar species of pig, so it was an unfair advantage. Sadly, it was lost as soon as Gon figured it out when a few apples hit his pig on the forehead.

My pig was heavy, but I managed to reach my grill post before Hisoka! Different types of knives were provided, and I greatfully took one. I could use a piece of paper from the book I hid under my jacket to cut it up sharply with nen amplifying it, but I didn't want to reveal nen to newbies. It was dangerous and foolish. By the time I had finished draining the blood and other internal organs, others were halfway done roasting their pig. Stupid. Stupid. Nobody could eat a pig WHOLE.

"You guys oughtta know that nobody can eat a whole pig, blood, bone, and guts all!" I shouted. "At least clean your pig!"

Blank faces met mine and I grumbled, not wanting to give information that could be handled incorrectly to idiots. I carefully chopped up the ears, knowing that was the best part, found a random pineapple in the sides provided, then covered it up with pineapple juice every five minutes it was roasting. The end result would be a sweetened ham. For additional flavor and character, I chopped them into little pieces and put it on a shiskebab along with slightly salted carrots. I made ten sticks, with the size of my prey. Not to put the other meats to waste, I made plain ham that the other contestants would probably enjoy after such a tiring day. While some of the internal organs were edible, like the heart and liver, a majority felt squeamish about eating stomachs and kidneys. So I left that part out.

I was the last person the serve to Menchi and Buhara, since my preparation took a lot longer. I offered them my plate of shishkebabs. "Please enjoy."

Menchi sniffed the air. "Good smell."

Her companion had eaten half the plate already, and left the other half for her. Menchi eyed the plate. "Creative. But will the flavor back it up?"

She delicately took one kebab and eyed it thoroughly. "I like the texture. The meat was cooked to perfection, and the carrots were added in nicely, without dominating the stick." She took an experimental bite. The picky woman chewed for a while. When she finally swallowed, she held up her pass/fail sign.

"I don't like sweets that much, but even I can tell that you passed."

A wide grin adorned my face. I bowed in immense relief and gratitude. "Thank you so much, Menchi-sama! And you, too, Buhara-sama! I strive to become a Gourmet Hunter if I pass the test! You two are like my idols!"


	4. Chapter 4

"No, no, that will not do. You can't fail every single contestant but one, Menchi," said Chairman Netero. He had arrived by airship just a moment ago, saying that there had to be more passes. I agreed. I had pride, and that would be crushed if I only passed because of default. And the others looked so sad.

"The little girl wasn't the only one to be creative, I suppose," Menchi said, looking sheepish and thoughtful at the same time.

Now that made me seriously irritated. "Why do people keep on calling me little?!"

"Because you look like you're twelve, brat," shouted someone.

"I'm seventeen years old!"

I swear, everyone froze right then and there. Seriously?

Chairman Netero scolded Menchi, all the while checking her out. Gross. When they came to a conclusion, we all boarded the huge-ass airship to reach Mt. Split-in-half. Eggs. I knew it. Give me any location for food, and I'll know what grows there, how to get it, and how to cook it. The Spider-Eagle eggs were a delicacy that only lived in deep ravines that had the occasional wind push to help the baby Spider-Eagles fly once they hatched. The flight wasn't long, and I managed to evade Hisoka for that long. While he wasn't intrusive, my personal space was mine. And he kept claiming things like "She is mine~", which scared off other friendly looking people. Even though I was quite sure he wouldn't suddenly kill me on the spot, there was a degree of "scared"ness I had of him.

 **a)** Let's assume that Hisoka is a completely normal person with a skewed fashion sense and learned how to talk from a lewd teacher. That was an okay Hisoka.

 **b)** Now Hisoka is a slightly weird guy, like he hoards socks or something, along with all of the above. This was also an okay Hisoka to converse with.

 **c)** And Hisoka C was a psychotic person who didn't care less about a few certain morals, along with all of the above.

There was a very deep suspicion that that man was option C right now. That was why I wanted to avoid him. He wasn't half bad, though. My mind ran on basically three things: The imagination zone, the perverted zone, and the bad-ass nerd zone. The perverted zone worked on every guy I saw. On a scale from one to ten, with one being "how the fuck did your momma give birth to you", and ten being "I want that ass right now", he had to be between eight and ten.

Yeah.

My mind was a scary one. Especially since I was seventeen and a teenager. The teen years are the worst. When I was fourteen, my knees were hell and the acne under my bottom lip would not go away.

We landed. While I was very eager to hunt for dream eggs, it meant being in the general vicinity as Hisoka, since the boarding and leaving was in one select area of the airship. My nose twitched as the savory smell of black licorice neared. Oh, shoot. And I thought that my presence had been hidden well enough. Well, it would probably be amusing to him and embarrassing to me if we played Cat-and-Mouse, so I stayed perfectly still and awaited him. I sniffed the air again, innocently, but collected enough samples, and relaxed. His nen had very much calmed down and he wasn't in some sort of blood-lust-y frenzy. Good. Kisa did not want to die quite yet. His now cold hands rested on the top of my messy dark hair like I was his doll for display. Even though my eyes couldn't see through the back of my head, or that up, his smirk was something you _felt_. And the "doll" part wasn't a lie. I was born with big, light brown eyes with golden flecks. And there was the whole dress part. I liked dresses. A lot. You felt free wearing them, and a tad girly, and your self-esteem of femininity definitely boosted, too. Of course, I wore things under my dress. I wasn't taking any chances with surprise-perverts. Oh, and the socks. Maybe the shoes, too?

I sniffed again, enjoying the pleasant smell behind me.

"Am I delicious, Kisa-chan?"

I whirled around in surprise. His voice had been very close. And he was, as of this moment, very close. Heat rushed to my face and I took a step back and whirled right around, listening to Menchi-sama's instructions. His hands rested on my head again. Did I dare? No...Maybe...Yeah, definitely. I breathed in and waited for a moment for my tongue to digest the information. Hisoka's smirk grew; most likely everyone felt it. Good thing it wasn't a raging boner, at least... Whoa. He... Tasted really good. No sexual underlay or anything, he so beat everybody elses taste. It was sweet, savory, spicy, and salty all at the same time.

"How do I taste?"

"Mhm... Like a black licorice jellybean."

"Excellent, excellent. Continue to amuse me, please. I'm quite the fickle one."

Huh. Most people weren't so blunt with their personality traits. Hisoka had officially turned back to regular old option B. Meaning... Oh, thank The Bacon Lord, he was sane. My nerves would not be able to last any longer without fray. Then, the Second Examiner lept off the cliffside, leaving more than a few worried. Pshaw, first they diss the Gourmet Hunters, then they were genuinely scared for her? Make up your minds, people! Menchi-sama came back up with a Spider-Eagle egg and a smirk on her face. "Well? Get to it. Besides you. You don't have to do it, since you passed the previous test."

I shook my head. "I'm still gonna do it. Hadn't I told you how much I wanted to become a Gourmet Hunter?"

She nodded in thought. "Yeah, you do seem worthy to be at least just a plain chef."

Yes! A compliment! I positively beamed.

The only ones gutsy enough to complete the task brought the number of examinee's down to less than half. With the leftover ham I had made, and the egg, I was juggling a feast. So I shared the ham with everybody, just to have at least one free hand.


	5. Chapter 5

I've been told by people with normal senses that the dream eggs were delicious. Well, they were missing out on some crazy shit, because I found them irresistibly tasty. Imagine yourself in my shoes, and everything is rather bland, rich, or superbly terrible. It was just how the universe worked. My advantage with the nice senses backfired with the bad senses. If there's a rotten egg, somewhere, normal people wrinkle their nose and search for the bad smell so they can eradicate it, right?

Well, if I am within a half-kilometer range of the bad smell, I'll freak out and immediately plug my nose with something hurtful. So, my house is very, very clean. If the word "clean freak" comes to mind, I'll pause and think, "oh, that's me."

Like some sort of supernatural creature, I can also smell blood. So, while wandering the halls of the airship that was supposed to bring the examinees to the third stage of the Hunter exam, I smelled sweat, blood, and the hot breath of someone panting. Hard. It could be someone was taking their masturbation/sex time way too far...

Fighting. If it was something naughty, then the smells of bodily fluids would be more apparent. So people were fighting, in the upper deck? Why? Hisoka was currently residing in a room he had claimed, playing with his cards and muttering a few things that was hard for me to hear. Me. I wasn't arrogant (maybe), but I was quite sure that if somebody wanted to murmer, they would do so loud enough that only supposedly themselves could hear it. If it was too quiet, then that meant that it was something Hisoka didn't know he was doing.

I followed the scent trail and was a tad surprised to find Chairman Netero sparring with two boys. Gon and Killua - the people who looked my age, but in reality, I was five years their senior. The old man had a bright yellow ball in one hand, and was bouncing on one foot, looking very jovial. Gon was panting, while Killua hadn't even broken a sweat, but I could tell that he was tired and defeated.

"Oh, look! A visitor! Would you like to play a game, Miss?" Chairman Netero asked, all the while dodging a fierce attack from a green-clad boy and a silver-haired boy simultaneously.

Ooh, a game~! "No, thanks. I'd like to save my energy for the third task."

He chuckled. "That's smart of you, Miss."

In most cases, a young lady was called "Miss" because of her age. It could range for girls between four to twenty-something. He played smart. From a first look, my age couldn't have been determined, but that was also with Biscuit Krueger, the famous Gem-Hunter. By her records, she should have been fifty-six, almost fifty-seven by now. But I had met her, once, and she had the appearance of a teen.

I had met Biscuit Krueger at a small gemstone auction. It wasn't that big of a deal, but the man selling had really cheap prices for really pretty jewels (actually, it had been a huge ripoff, since the stones were fake. Krueger really saved me back then). It was a mother's day present...

Ah, nostalgia. And now everyone was dead. Well, then.

I walked right out the room, dwelling on familial matters. I hadn't really given it a thought over the years. It had been a simple accident. And the coincidental sickness that killed my parents and sister. Well, that had been years ago. Thinking about the past wasn't good for anybody's health. You had to move forward first.

I straightened out my over-sized beige coat so the book I hid under my clothes would not seem so readily seen. The book had really nice paper that was good for transmuting nen. Other than physical strengths that I had trained hard to achieve, and my nen, I was a normal girl. A normal seventeen year old who looked like a twelve year old. You know, normalities. It was just the average Monday afternoon.

I occasionally wore cosmetics, but those were on my days off - festivals. Holidays. Parties. Shitty pranks.

My hair wasn't completely messed-up, but after a whole day of just running and cooking and stuff, a shower was very much wanted.

"Maybe I can take off my jacket," I said to myself, wandering in the dark hallways. The windows to the outside said that it was almost morning, and the airship was slowing down. It would be a bad idea to be too smelly, and the thick coat, while it had it's uses of concealing a lot, did create more heat. Thus, sweat trails. And I remembered Hisoka and his creepy smile. Would he be even weirder if I shed an article of clothing?

...Yeah. Definitely. So I decided to keep the overcoat on. If somebody had a sense of smell that could track sweat, then I'd beat them up.

I yawned and regretted that I hadn't took at least an hour or two to nap. Again, Hisoka...

Right.

No regrets.

None at all.

After a little more than an hour of just staring out the window, we were dropped off on a tall tower. A very tall tower. Speakers boomed, saying that the objective was to reach the bottom of the tower within our seventy-two hours oh so graciously provided.

"Heh! This tower is no match for me, a Rock-Climbing Expert!" Said one dude. His hands were thick with calluses, and I agreed that he had to be a Rock-Climbing Expert. But not a combat-expert. A freakishly large purple bird snapped him right up. Oh, okay. Monsters. Of course. Well, the Examiner never said that we all had to be _alive_ to reach the bottom.

When people started disappearing from the top, I had realized that the tiles were trap-doors and that was the only way to reach the bottom without being snapped up. So, after much wandering, I settled on a tile very close to the edge of of the tower. So, if need be, I could escape by breaking the rock and hope for a monster-less fall down with no broken bones.

"Here goes nothing," I said, and put all my weight (an impressive 48.8 kg!) on one side of the white tile. I fell, but I flipped to secure the fall, and I landed sort of gracefully on both feet.

At least thirty people were in this one room. Good thing the room was big. A ringer buzzed, and the intercom came on again. "Thirty-two people have finally entered the room. Please gather in a single-file line to get your bracelet. The crowd did what instructed and I went with the flow, very confused by everything. Okay, let's break it into simpler instructions to dumb it down. You get your bracelet. Good job, you got it.

"Is everyone wearing a bracelet?" Pause. "Alright, now the objective of this path that all of you have chosen are knock-out battles! The two contestants still standing clear this path and get to move on. Ready, steady... FIGHT!"


	6. Chapter 6

As soon as the buzzer sounded, I zoomed out of the way of everybody and hid in a corner.

No, no, I'm not a cowardly fool. I'm a smart fool.

Nobody really was fighting quite yet, but the tension was palpable. Finally, it was broken when a skeletal man stepped into the midst of the crowd. Like, seriously, he needed sustenance. What was he, anorexic?

"My name is Vild, and I'm going to crush all of you," he exclaimed, and swung a mighty war hammer down.

Thus, chaos.

I think it took about five crushed skulls for the crowd to understand that we were _fighting_ , not standing around like a loser (me not included, of course). My nose crinkled when the smell of blood, sweat, and tears filled the room that was now too small to fit thirty-some bodies. When there were four people left, I think they noticed me strategically hidden in the shadow of the corner.

Some guy with shockingly orange hair pointed a finger at me. "Ya fuckin' coward, hidin' away when e'eryone else i' fightin'?"

Three other heads turned.

"Oh," I said. "Don't mind me. I'm just an innocent little girl."

This seemed to enrage the orange headed man - sorry, _woman_ \- even more.

"I'm gonna fight ya!" She hollered, and ran straight at me with two deadly looking knives. But, alas, no nen.

I blinked, and dodged. The woman quickly backtracked and swung a leg at my midsection, but I let it hit me, since my torso was charged with En.

 _CRACK!_ went her shin, and the tips of the tibia and fibula bones peeked out of her body, gushing blood. The adrenaline of this short fight was still up and roaring, so I kicked her head hard enough to make her black out, but not enough to kill her. Then, since the others had momentarily stopped fighting, I quickly tore a page out of my book underneath the layers of my clothing, transmuted it into a very sharp weapon, then threw it into Vild's chest. He wouldn't die immediately, but it was meant to be an incapacitating blow, still majorly serious.

I settled down and the intercom crackled. "Two people are remaining. Kisa Lotte and Hill Nereksin, please proceed through the door within the next five minutes."

Hill Nereksin, an androgynous teal-haired person wearing traffic-light colors, scampered out the door. I was right behind him, since the smell of just everything was disgusting. There was a little blood stain above my coat-pocket. From that loud orange lady.

Ew. Just ew. Blood smelled terrible, and it was hard to wash out of clothing, especially light-colored clothing.

Hill and I were trapped in a room the size of an elevator, which sucked, since the intercom in this room again crackled and I instinctively covered my ears, prepared for the booming noises.

"Alright, the two contestants trapped in this room will have to fight a face-off until the other one dies. But, the rule is, no using your hands at all! If you do, the stones will shift underneath your feet, water will quickly rise, and you will be left to drown. Are you ready?"

Hill breathed inwards sharply, and I tucked my hands in my pockets to avoid the temptation (and thorough training) to use my hands.

"Begin!"

I winced at the all too loud voice, and the timid posture in Hill straightened out and he lunged for my neck, a total personality change from my observations from before. He took advantage of my weakness, and exploited it.

I side-stepped, and kicked him in the side, hard. I heard a few ribs break, but Hill was relentless in his assault. His wolf-like teeth snatched at air, literally my position two seconds ago.

Okay, okay, don't panic now. I was a sensor and a primarily distance fighter. I had great upper body strength, but hands weren't involved... Okay, what to do...

I elbowed the wall behind me with nen, and I felt the stone crumble. Plan.

His back was turned for half a second, but that was all I needed to kick his backside into the little weak spot I had created. Half of his head was captured in the stone wall, and the rest of him was splayed out in the enclosed area, taking up at least half the space.

There was a little buzzing sound, and a door opened.

I jumped to the other side, since the door was already closing, but almost fell to my death. I was standing on a metal beam ten inches wide a pit of uneven spikes littered the floor below, and the door way over there was the only indicator of the distance.

"Not too hard," I muttered, grateful for an easier task (not that the previous ones were hard at all).

Then the irony came.

I raced down the beam, struggling to keep my balance as the beam was getting thinner and thinner, and the door on the other side was closing. I leapt forward, and managed to enter the other side without losing any body parts.

The door closed with finality, and my shoulders drooped when I saw a massive man wearing prisoner garments looming over me.

The intercom crackled. "Fight Prisoner 556393. If the contestant wins, they will move on to the bottom of the tower. If the prisoner wins, fifteen years will be taken off from his sentence."

The criminal smirked.

"You may begin."

* * *

"Kisa, applicant #63, is the fourth to pass. Total time, twelve hours and twenty-one minutes."

I strolled into the main room, and saw three other people.

Crazy guy with a weird face, guy with a questionable fashion sense, and... Hisoka.

Great. Just great. I spent half a day doing little gimmicks and strength puzzles and competitions, just to come back and see the creep again. Great.

I sat down against the wall besides the door that had let me in, and took in a deep breath of air. Yes, relief. The stronger ones usually had very nice-tasting nen. I breathed slightly through my mouth, trying to clear the disgusting tastes that had accumulated throughout the journey.

Did I dare...?

I allowed a small peek at Hisoka, who's smirk was even scarier than that Prisoner dude. I caught me staring, and licked his lips. I quickly turned my head down and began fiddling with my thumbs. Oh, yes, very interesting thumb-twiddling going on over here. Don't mind me. No need to look at me. I am a speck on the wall.

To my dismay, he slowly stood up, gathered his cards from his fallen card tower, and walked over to my space.

"Hello, Kisa-chan~." He whispered in my ear, and I stopped the intense single-player thumb war.

I scooted an inch away. "Personal space," I said, somehow finding a clear voice.

He languidly stretched his legs and I could just _hear_ his smile widen.

...Creep.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: Hi guys! I am not dead! Yay! I haven't checked my email in months, so when I did, I was amazed at the number of favorites and follows and reviews this story had! Still am! I haven't abandoned my other stories nor this one, but I was busy with life. Like Real World Adult things that can be fun, but is mostly really scary. Anyway, let's get on with Chapter 7!**

* * *

"Um," I stated eloquently.

The sun _burned._ "Okay then... geez, I've been trapped in a dark place for seventy-two hours. Why is the sun so fucking bright?"

Hisoka cranked his neck downwards. "You just answered your own question."

I really, really wanted to retort something funny and sarcastic, but I was too worried about my personal health to do that... Haha, what a joke. "Oh no," I said in the most serious tone I could muster. "Excuse me while I recharge my brain."

His eyes crinkled.

Hopefully that was a good sign.

All twenty-four of us (I had counted) spent a minute just soaking in the sun and allowing ourselves to enjoy what we had been depraved of for quite a while before forcing our minds to clear to prepare us for the next task. The Trick Tower wasn't the worst experience, but I would definitely not add it to my list of places to visit again. Unless I became senile in my old age and decided to take a trip along memory lane.

A man with the shittiest hair cut I've ever seen stepped into our view, exiting from a hidden door from the tower. Bodyguards surrounded him, but only him and two of the suited men had the ability to utilize their nen. "Ladies and Gentlemen," a surprisingly curt voice cut clear through the air. I assumed that he would have a teenager gang slur of sorts, but I shouldn't have judged a book by its cover. Even if the book cover was a young man with a bright purple Mohawk at least a meter in height. "Congratulations on having escaped the Trick Tower."

He continued on. "Only the Fourth Phase and the Final Phase remain."

Number 294, this massive ninja dude, voiced my thoughts exactly: "Two more..."

To be fair, we were already over halfway to the finish line.

The purple haired ( _be a nice person Kisa, you can do it)_ freak jerked his thumb over his shoulder, pointing towards a faint outline of an island. "The fourth phase will take place over there, on Zevil island."

Because Zevil rhymes with devil, I immediately straightened up and pinched the insides of my arms to dispel the fatigue gradually seeping into my body.

"Now, let us proceed."

My overactive imagination started conjuring images of the twenty four of us having to swim our way to the end, and then sharks, and then electric eel, and then giant monsters that lurked in underwater caves and only came up to snap up little girls and... Okay brain, you need some sleep.

Or coffee. Infused with an energy drink.

The proctor lifted his arm and snapped dramatically. I mentally flinched, then promptly mentally slapped myself for being so skittish.

A hand rested on my head. Oh shit.

But I found myself leaning into the touch, since his hand was warm, but... Wait. Ew.

"Hisoka," I uttered with mild disgust. "Nobody here had taken a proper shower in... five days. My hair is currently in a state of abhorrent repulsiveness. Imagine what your poor hand must be feeling right now."

There had been toilets and sinks in separate rooms at the bottom waiting room of the Trick Tower, but mindlessly scrubbing hair and clothes in cold water could only do so much.

Hisoka pulled his arm back, but let the touch linger in what seemed to be more possessive and childlike than creepy. I guess I grew to understanding him as a person better after spending two days just playing card games. "'Abhorrent repulsiveness?'"

"Yes,"I retaliated. "And I'm not tall enough like you to hide the state of my personal hygiene.

He smirked, but our conversation came to a halt after a tall, brutish man (another one?!) came into the clearing outside with a cart. The cart had a mysterious box resting upon it, and I sincerely hoped that the box was harmless in and of itself.

"I will need you to draw lots," the purple haired freak declared to the crowd.

Cue the noises of confusion.

Butterflies flapped around aimlessly in my stomach. _Digest them._

I swore that the proctor's eyes formed into evil little crescents as he said, "To determine who will hunt and who will be hunted." Reminded me of the person besides me. That didn't sound like a good thing.

"In here are twenty-four numbered cards." Hey, I counted correctly. I can math! "In other words, your ID numbers are on the cards. Now, I need you each to draw a card in the order by which you exited the tower."

Possible advantage?

"Will the first person come forward?"

There was a short pause in which everyone processed all the information the proctor had laid out, then the second half of the attendees looked around for the first person. Unsurprisingly, Hisoka was the first drawer. He patted my cheek before my brain mushed together coherent strings of thoughts and functions then left for fate to decide who was quite possibly the most unluckiest person in the world. The anxiety of the crowd was nearly tangible, nobody wanting their number to be in the hands of the Clown with murderous tendencies.

He brazenly strutted to the box, but something was off. He was still an eccentric person, but that was that. A person. The cut on his shoulder wasn't shallow, and Hisoka hadn't slept in a few days either. His steps were subdued, and I bit my lower lip and came to a realization. His nen wasn't at one hundred percent. He smelled off, but in a cramped, mildewy room, I couldn't sense his real health.

 _It's been more than two days for him since he finished_ , I thought. If he wasn't at a hundred percent yet, then his injury must be even more serious than I suspected.

At this point in my life, nothing was much of a shocker, so Hisoka's little cut wasn't an eye-opener. Maybe a little carelessness on his part.

When he stuck his hand into the slot on the box, I concentrated on my tongue and _breathed._

The cluster of people were nothing more than distant figures as I focused solely on the taste of black licorice. It was definitely his signature, black licorice, but the taste was a little off. It held a sour undertone, resembling the salted black licorice staple from the areas south of York New. Was he in pain? My sensing had limits so I couldn't know for sure.

Unsurprisingly again, the second person was the other nen user, the one with pins in his face. I never ended up learning his name, or any kind of stage name, since no one bothered to introduce me to the resident bobble head.

After the third person went to select his card, I strolled to the front as slowly as I could without seeming suspicious.

 _Please no Hisoka._

I kind of wanted to live, thank you very much.


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: Ignore the mistake in Chapter 7 where Kisa mentions not knowing Illumi's fake name.**

 **Wow, it's been some time. I'm getting caught back up with the manga, and we are ignoring the fact that Hisoka and Illumi get married for REASONS (coughcough *this story* coughcough). And the Dark Continent Arc is amazing. And I'm ignoring the boat arc thing because it'd seemed too much of a headache to write. Anyway, _commence with the story!_**

* * *

34\. Number 34.

I hastily stuffed the card into my jacket pocket and retreated back into the small crowd. My heart was beating still in my chest, the ' _ba-bump ba-bump_ ' noises not quite easing, even after knowing that I wouldn't have to chase after the other two nen users.

Hisoka and... the other guy. The pinhead was also someone I had decided to actively avoid.

Speaking of nen, the familar clown fixture in my life (that I was hoping to get rid of as soon as the Hunter tests finished) was oozing bloodlust. I managed to catch who he was aiming it towards, following the sharp golden eyes to an old hunchback with a large nose. Later, I might have been embarrassed by the palpable relief that the people behind me definitely noticed, but my nerves were too hyped up at the moment that I simply didn't care other than _I'm not Hisoka's target I'm not Hisoka's target I'mnotHisoka'starget...!_

So. Number 34. He was a tall guy with short cropped green-ish blue hair and a gaudy blue tunic. He didn't smell off, some average citrus shampoo scent that most people had. It was muddled by the sweat and grime from his stay in the tower, but that was besides the point. He was a decent target. An average bloke that didn't strike fear into people's hearts (like Hisoka).

"Hey, Killua," I overheard someone talking behind me. A young boy, from the sound of it. Was that Gon?

"Huh?"

"He said something about hunting and being hunted. Does that mean that we'll fight each other...?" The first boy trailed off.

It wasn't that I was an eavesdropper. It was just that they weren't being too discrete with their voices and they were standing a few feet away. Totally not eavesdropping.

The second boy, Killua, with an air of nonchalance, said, "Yeah, probably."

I made a deduction. Friends, but the second one wasn't too concerned about fighting the first one, but the first one seemed wary. Maybe in just a 'hey I don't wanna fight my friend' sense, but it might have been that Killua was a strong fighter that the first boy didn't want to face.

Or maybe I was reading way too much into everything and needed to chill the fuck down. However...

The second boy moved to the front to collect his card. Number 99. Killua from the first stage. Silvery white hair. Pale. Blue eyes. And _young_. His youth was distracting, but as he walked back to his previous position next to the first boy (Gon, my senses reaffirmed), I noticed the way he threw his head up and strolled with confidence, like the twenty-four people here were just puppets he could orchestrate a great and bloody theatre with.

Earlier, I had brushed him off as cute and innocent with the fluffy hair and bright sapphire orbs just because he couldn't use nen. Now...? A traitorous thought besieged my head. ' _You don't have to use nen to be strong.'_ A heavy rock settled in my gut, upsetting my recently calmed nerves.

Just use ren, I reminded myself. He didn't know about body strengthening techniques through the usage of ren, so if Killua had to target me, I'd have the upper hand.

Probably.

I cursed my traitorous thoughts and settled with the crowd. Namely, moving onto the boat that I hadn't noticed appear at the dock while absorbed in my own thoughts.

Hisoka was at the front of the line, still radiating an unsettling amount of bloodlust. With my mental _and_ physical health in mind, I skirted around his periphery and walked alongside Gon and Killua and two others. A tall and shabby young adult that reeked of sanitary solutions and a blonde closer to my age. The blonde's looks threw me off for a second, because his face screamed _pretty_ _girl!_ but his scent was positively male.

"Interesting day so far," I commented to the blonde not-female after he and the doctor-smelling guy side-eyed me for walking with them.

"If this is your idea of 'interesting,' I'd hate to be stuck in an 'invigorating' situation with you," he replied effortlessly.

Ouch.

"Kurapika," the doctor-guy said in a low voice, "she's associated with _Hisoka_."

I supposed the doctor thought I couldn't hear him, because again, _ouch._ If I had known approaching the nen users on the first day to make friendly would result in lost potential friendships, I would have never done so.

The blonde, Kurapika, opened his mouth to speak, but I interceded him. "Uh, no. I am not associated with Hisoka. At all."

Kurapika shot me a pointed glance.

"I mean," I amended. "I'm not associated with him willingly. He freaks me out, too, y'know."

At that, their guard dropped a minute amount. Better than nothing.

And then the boat lurched forward. I grabbed a handle among the side rails and stared at the water's surface. Clear enough to see schools of fish through the surface. That meant I wouldn't be going hungry during this stage.

"I'm Kisa," I blurted out halfway into the boat ride. Great social skills, me.

Kurapika and the doctor looked a bit thrown.

"Uh, I'm Leorio. Nice to meet you," the doctor managed. He held out a hand and I internally struggled with creating the next sentence to use to lift the awkward atmosphere. Thankfully, Kurapika beet me to it.

"My name is Kurapika. I couldn't help but wonder, how did you attract the attention of Hisoka?"

My brain ran a short-circuit as I ran through a list of excuses. Nen abilities were a secret or something like that. My thoughts briefly flitted to the stacks of paper at my disposal and how normal non-nen users thought about having paper as a primary weapon. But that was besides the point.

"He tastes good," I declared. And then realized that that was not the smart thing to say.

Leorio choked.

"No-! He, I-! What I- What I meant was that - " _I can taste his nen_ " - that his... umm. I smelled his shampoo."

Yeah, failure.

"And I commented that his shampoo was nice and... yeah. Yeah." I finished lamely, wondering if whatever God up there could just kill me already.

Leorio had turned a shade of red that was almost comical if my face had not been a replica. Meanwhile, Kurapika was wearing a really funny expression and at that moment I was grateful for the sudden docking at Zevil island.

We were separated as the twenty four of us applicants relocated for further instruction. My mingling sessions needed a check-up, and the middle of the Hunter Exams was not a place to correct that.

My hazy brain filtered through the necessary information needed to survive this next task that it had gathered before we all had ridden the boat.

Taking the other person's badge.

A green-blue haired male was at the center of my attention, but I sealed my attention to the new exam proctor that had gathered us at the boat stern. She was a chipper woman with strawberry-colored hair and startling golden eyes. _Hisoka,_ my mind offered. I fretted at that easy connection, since I was actively avoiding that creep now.

"Thanks for your patience, everyone!" The woman cheered. "We've finally arrived at Zevil Island! Now, please disembark in the order by which you completed the Third Phase."

Shit. Three people were in front of me.

The creepy clown, the resident bobblehead, and the weird ninja who was totally conspicuous.

Unfortunately, the strawberry-haired lady made things worse. "You will disembark at two minute intervals one at a time. And you will be staying on this island for exactly one week. During this time, you must collect your six points and come back to this location," she announced, and there went ten years of my life.

Number 34 was seventh in line. Which meant there were six minutes in between us for me to employ zetsu and commence with the intense game of tag and hide-and-seek meshed together, excluding the possibility that the two before me might be hunting down _me._

 _"All right!_ The first person may begin!"

I swore.


End file.
